The first to enter, and prepared for many things--among which the
gloomy surroundings of an ascetic, devoted to the dark usages of
the old faith, held the first place in probability--I halted in
surprise on the threshold of a lofty and splendid room suffused with
rose-tinted light, and furnished with a luxury to which I had been
hitherto a stranger. The walls, hung with gorgeous French tapestry,
presented a succession of palaces and hunting scenes, interspersed
with birds of strange and tropical plumage; between which and the eyes
were scattered a profusion of Japanese screens, cabinets, and tables,
with some of those quaint Dutch idols, brought from the East, which,
new to me, were beginning at this time to take the public taste.
Embracing the upper half of the room, and also a _ruelle_, in which
stood a stately bed with pillars of silver, a circle of stronger
light, dispersed by lamps cunningly hidden in the ceiling, fell on a
suite of furniture of rose brocade and silver; in the great chair of
which, with her feet on a foot-stool set upon the open hearth, sat an
elderly lady, leaning on an ebony stick. A monkey mowed and gibbered
on the back of her chair; and a parrot, vieing in brilliance with the
broidered birds on the wall, hung by its claws from a ring above her
head.
Nor was the lady herself unworthy of the splendour of her
surroundings. It is true, her face and piled-up hair, painted and dyed
into an extravagant caricature of youth, aped the graces of sixteen,
and at the first glance touched the note of the grotesque rather than
the beautiful; but it needed only a second look to convince me that
with all that she on whom I looked was a great lady of the world, so
still she sat, and so proud and dark was the gaze she bent on me over
her clasped hands.
At first, it seemed to me, she gazed like one who, feeling a great
surprise, has learned to hide that and all other emotions. But
presently, "Come in, booby," she cried, in a voice petulant and
cracking with age. "Does a woman frighten you? Come nearer, I say. Ay,
I have seen your double. But the lamp has gone out."
The woman who had admitted me rustled forward. "It has sunk a little
perhaps, madam," she said in a smooth voice. "But I----"
[Illustration: IN THE GREAT CHAIR SAT AN ELDERLY LADY LEANING ON AN
EBONY STICK]
"But you are a fool," the lady cried. "I meant the lamp in the man,
silly. Do you think that anyone who has ever seen him would take that
block of wood for my son? Give him a brain, and light a fire in him,
and spark up those oyster eyes, and----turn him round, turn him round,
woman!"
"Turn," Smith muttered, in a fierce whisper.
"Ay," the lady cried, as I went to obey, "see his back, and he is like
enough!"
"And perhaps, madam, strangers----"
"Strangers? They'd be strange, indeed, man, to be taken in by him! But
walk him, walk him. Do you hear, fellow," she continued, nodding
peevishly at me, "hold up your head, and cross the room like a man if
you are one. Do you think the small-pox is in the air that you fear
it! Ha! That is better. And what is your name, I wonder, that you have
that nose and mouth, and that turn of the chin?"
"Charles Taylor," I made bold to answer, though her eyes went through
me, and killed the courage in me.
"Ay, Charles, that is like enough," she replied. "And Taylor, that was
your mother's. It is a waiting-woman's name. But who was your father,
my man?"
"Charles Taylor too," I stammered, falling deeper and deeper into the
lie.
"Odds my eyes, no!" she retorted with an ugly grin, and shook her
piled-up head at me, "and you know it! Come nearer!" and then when I
obeyed, "take that for your lie!" she cried; and, leaning forward with
an activity I did not suspect, she aimed a blow at me with her ebony
cane, and, catching me smartly across the shins, made me jump again.
"That is for lying, my man," she continued with satisfaction, as I
stooped ruefully to rub myself. "Before now I have had a man stopped
and killed in the street for less. Ay, that have I! and a prettier man
than you, and a gentleman! And now walk! walk!" she repeated, tapping
the floor imperiously, "and fancy that you have money in your purse."
I obeyed. But naturally the smart of the cane did not tend to set me
at my ease, or abate my awe of the old witch; and left to myself I
should have made a poor show. Both the man and the woman, however,
prompted and drilled me with stealthy eagerness, and whispering me
continually to do this and that, to hold up my chin, to lay back my
shoulders, to shake out my handkerchief, to point my toes, I suppose I
came off better in this strange exhibition than might have been
expected. For by-and-by, the lady, who never ceased to watch me with
sharp eyes, grunted and bade me stand. "He might pass," she said,
"among fools, and with his mouth shut! But odds my life," she
continued, irritably, "God have mercy on us that there should be need
of all this! Is there no royalty left in the world, that my son, of
all people, should turn traitor to his lawful King, and spit on his
father's faith? Sometimes I could curse him. And you, woman," she
cried with sudden fierceness, "you cajoled him once. Can you do
nothing now, you Jezebel?"
But the woman she addressed stood stiffly upright, looking before her,
and answered nothing; and the mistress, with a smothered curse, turned
to the man. "Well," she said, "have you nothing to say?"
"Only, madam, what I said before," he answered smoothly and gravely;
"my lord's secession is no longer in issue. The question is how he may
be brought back into the path of loyalty. To be frank, he is not of
the stuff of those, whom your ladyship knows, who will readily lick
both sides of the trencher. And so, without some little pressure, he
will not be brought back. But were he once committed to the good
cause, either by an indiscretion on his own part, if he could be
induced to that----"
"Which he cannot, man, he cannot," she struck in impatiently. "He made
one slip, and he will make no second."
"True, madam," the man answered. "Then there remains only the way
which does not depend on him; and which I before indicated; some ruse
which may lead both the friends and enemies of the good cause to think
him committed to it. Afterwards, this opinion being brought to his
notice, and with it, the possibility of clearing himself to the
satisfaction both of St. Germain's and St. James's, he would, I think,
come over."
"'Tis a long way round," said madam, dryly.
"It is a long way to Rome, madam," said the man, with meaning in his
voice.
She nodded and shifted uneasily in her seat. "You think that the one
means the other?" she said at last.
"I do, madam. But there is a new point, which has just arisen."
"A new point! What?"
"There is a design, and it presses," the man answered in a low voice,
and as if he chose his words with care. "It will be executed within
the month. If it succeed, and my lord be still where he is, and
unreconciled, I know no head will fall so certainly. Not Lord
Middleton's influence, no, nor yours, my lady, will save him."
"What, and my Lord Marlborough escape?"
"Yes, madam, for he has made his peace, and proved his sincerity."
"I believe it," she said, grimly. "He is the devil. And his wife is
like unto him. But there's Sidney Godolphin--what of him?"
"He has made his peace, madam."
"Russell?"
"The same, madam, and given proofs."
"But, odds my soul, sir," she cried, sharply and pettishly, "if
everybody is of one mind, where does it stick that the king does not
come over?"
"On a life, madam," Smith answered, letting each word fall slowly, as
if it were a jewel. "One life intervenes."
"Ha!" she said, sitting up and looking straight before her. "Sits the
wind in that quarter? Well, I thought so."
"And therefore time presses."
"Still, man," she said, "our family has done much for the throne; and
his Gracious Majesty has----"
"Has many virtues, my lady, but he is not forgiving," quoth the
tempter, coolly.
On that she sighed, and deeply; and I, hearing the sigh, and seeing
how uneasily she moved in her chair, comprehended that in old age the
passions, however strong they may have been in youth, become slaves to
help others to their aims; ay, and I comprehended also that, sharply
as she had just rated both the man and the woman, and great lady as
she was, and arrogant as had been her life--whereof evidence more than
enough was to be found in every glance of her eye and tone of her
voice--she was now being pushed and pushed and pushed, into that to
which she was but half inclined. But half inclined, I repeat; and yet
the battle was over, and she persuaded. I think, but I am not quite
sure, that some assenting word had actually fallen from her--or she
was in the act of speaking one--when a gentle knock at the door cut
short our conference. Mr. Smith raised his hand in warning, and the
woman, gliding to the door, opened it, and after speaking a word to
someone without, returned.
"My lord is below," said she.
It was strange to see how madam's face changed at that; and how, on
the instant, eagerness took the place of fatigue, and hope of _ennui_.
There was no question now of withstanding her; or of any other giving
orders. The parrot must be removed, because he did not like it; and we
fared no better. "Let him up," she cried, peremptorily, striking her
stick on the floor; "let him up. And do you, Monterey," she continued
to the woman, "begone, and quickly. It irks him to see you. And,
Smith, to-morrow! Do you hear me? come to-morrow, and I will talk. And
take away that oaf! Ugh, out with him! My lord must not be kept
waiting for such _canaille_. To-morrow! to-morrow!"